This invention relates to covered hopper railway cars, and, more particularly, to such a car having an outlet facilitating discharge of certain type ladings which are particularly difficult to unload.
Covered hopper railway cars are used to transport numerous types of ladings. For economical use of such cars, it is advantageous if the lading, when it reaches its destination, can be quickly and efficiently discharged from the car. While this occurs with most ladings, in some instances, the lading is of a type where off-loading the commodity is an arduous, time consuming and hence expensive task. One example of such a commodity is corn gluten. This corn by-product is a fibrous material shipped in pelletized form.
A problem arises when corn gluten, which contains sugar, is shipped in covered hopper cars, especially in hot weather. During transport, the pellets, which are sticky from the sugar, compact as a result of their combined weight and vibration of the car as it moves over the tracks. A typical hopper car in which the gluten is shipped has four (4) bottom discharge outlets each of which are 24" long and 48" wide. As the gluten compacts, it bridges across these outlets. At its destination, it is not unusual for only a few pellets of the corn gluten to discharge from the cutlets when they are opened. Thus, even though the car has thirty-two (32) square feet of open discharge area, it may take up to three days to off-load the rest of the gluten. The off-loading operation not only requires men with pile drivers standing on top the car and pounding down on the lading to force it through the outlets in the car bottom; but also, attaching vibrators to the sides of the car in an attempt to shake the pellets loose.
If workers are not careful, they can punch holes through the bottom of the car with their pile drivers necessitating a repair. Thus, the expenses involved in off-loading this type lading includes not only extensive labor costs, but also the time the car is out of revenue service, and perhaps even repair costs. A car being out of revenue service is especially important where, as is often the case, the cars involved are leased and the lessee depends upon his lease revenue to defray the costs of the lease.
It is known to use wide mouthed outlets in particular types of open-top hopper cars. Such outlets are used, for example, in coal carrying hopper cars. A car with this type outlet is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,908 to Hallam. However, the ladings carried in such cars are substantially different from the types of lading carried in covered hopper railway cars.